More Fine Art Paintings
by Mary Crittenden

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Oil on Canvas 33" x 24"

Mary's
love for a past era seen in old black and white photographs has inspired
this painting. She wanted to show the cool winter in this painting so she
chose a cooler palette of colors. She used expressive brushstrokes to
express this feeling and to help tell the story of a young woman bringing
her eggs to the store to barter for other things she had need of.

Oil on Canvas 36" x 30"

The women in this era were getting ready for an event.
This was a time when it was common for young
women who werent married to live together. Mary illustrates the
romance of this time in their clothing, furniture and hairstyles. Her desire to leave room
for the viewer to imagine what the story in the painting was, what they might be getting ready for?
. . . a letter from a relative or a special friend? The cool colors of purple and green seemed to be just the right
accents to express this feeling and the thoughts that go with this time of leisure.
Through this painting Mary recalls the stories passed down from relatives about how
things were at this time.

Oil on Canvas 48" x 24"

Oil on Canvas 11" x 21"

In this painting
Mary used a palette of colors that that would express the hard times of this
era. This was a time when people knew their neighbors and helped each other.
She saw three men in front of a store not knowing the future; their social
standing didn't seem to matter now. You can only imagine what they did, why
they were there and what they might be thinking.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who
have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Oil on Canvas 28" x 22"

Oil on Canvas 29"x 23"

Mary
paints with a fresh new style where she is the one who decides what to paint
and how she wants to convey this in her paintings. Here she chose to use
spring colors to express the season. She designed the grass to direct
attention to the boy fishing.

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Oil on Canvas 30" x 40"

In her painting, Goldminers, Mary is illustrating men
at work with the dream of finding gold. Marys choice of hot colors was because it
was hot and dry in this area of Yreka, California during the Goldrush. She found these
people very interesting. With the help from information given to her on the equipment the
miners used Mary was able to render not only the feeling for this era and the people
who mined gold, but, also the tools used and obstacles and hardships they had to overcome.
Mary used large expressive strokes of paint on canvas; expressing the story of the
goldminers and who they were. Rough, rugged, hardworking men who lived without the
conveniences of modern machines or the luxuries of the city.

Oil on Canvas 12" x 15"

Mary was
inspired from an old black and white photograph of two children in a forest
to paint this. She tones most of her canvas before beginning a painting and
does sketches to decide how to express what she saw in the photograph, the
innocence of children of a past era and the stiff clothing they wore was
accepted, the gestures on their faces say what the thoughts might have been
in their minds.

Oil on Canvas24" x 30"

In this painting Mary took an old photo of people harvesting beans and
redesigned it. By adding, moving, and removing objects and people around not
being confined to what the photograph had in it she is able to create a
painting that tells a story. Mary wanted others to see what she saw in the
photo as she imagined people working hard, each one doing his part in
harvesting of the beans. The barrels, barrels and more barrels of green
beans, the truck, the fields of beans, the people with their different hats
and clothing all help to tell the story of bean harvest.

Oil on Canvas 28" x 26"

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No images or text may be downloaded, transferred or stored on any electronic
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